My next piano??
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OK, the eagle has landed.
I played Yamahas at our local dealers and Roland/Kawais at the local Kawai/Roland/Casio dealer.
I literally was about to pull the trigger on a deal when I got a couple of calls in quick succession that changed and complicated the decision. The local Kawai/Roland/Casio dealer got "real" on the pricing for a Roland HP704 and about 45 minutes later one of the Yamaha dealers offered an incredible deal on a N1X that turned my head. It was still a bit more than 2x the price of the Roland, but the N1X has a real grand piano action and would likely last as long as I do. It's a lot of fun to play. The problem remained that the appearance just doesn't "fit" in our home. It would sit smiling and glittery across from a Steinway B that would be forever contemptuous of the new instrument to our home.
I want to thank LD who clearly knows the business inside and out - and was very patient with me in helping me to make the decision I did. As LD and others have noted, the HP704's strengths are not necessarily in the realm of sound, but rather in its action. While I would take the N1X's action over the HP704, the Roland action is quite decent. The Roland LX706 had a nicer cabinet - one of the nicest looking ones out there - but in playing both, I felt like I was paying for the cabinet and not getting a better instrument.
One thing I negotiated for with the local dealer was an artist bench which is more useful than the standard bench.
Attendees at piano gatherings are remarkably particular about the quality of benches..Aside from the piano decision stuff, one thing that was refreshing is that no one at any of the dealers hovered over me or did anything that resembled "selling". Perhaps it is because I'm old, brought in a stack of music and headphones, or it is a new a new world in which sales folks aren't pushy. It was quite different from back in the day. LD was far more helpful person in this enterprise.
3 person delivery..
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Very nice!
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@George-K said in My next piano??:
@kluurs nice!
Tell us more about the PianoTec stuff.
How, exactly does it work?
I'm still toying with Pianoteq - but it is fun. I'm not sure I have it set up optimally - but I can demo it for you tomorrow. Interestingly, the Rolands used modeled sounds - as does Pianoteq. One has to wonder if down the road, pianos may plan for add-ons like Pianoteq - i.e., an iPad sized screen along with native computer capabilities. It would enable one to read music, choose the piano one wished and obviously things like type of hall, voicing of hammers, temperment, etc.
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Congrats! Looks great, and thanks for the story. Also, good on you, @LuFins-Dad
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@kluurs Looks really really nice!! Congrats!
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@kluurs and I spent a couple of hours together yesterday.
The Roland HP704 is a very, very nice digital piano. Combined with Pianoteq and a set of headphones, it goes beyond "nice," and into remarkable.
I'm in the market, as I mentioned, and this will deserve some serious, serious consideration.
However, Mrs. George has decreed that a new sofa is important right now, so I've not broached the subject of a new piano....yet.
ETA: And, for the record, that is one of THREE pianos he has in his living room.
We were going to get together, talk, and have lunch. By 2PM, both of us had forgotten about food, and we continued talking about music, recordings, teachers and pianos (of course!).
He recommended I check out the Saint-Säens piano concerto #4, and we listened some of it yesterday. If you're not familiar with it...it's worth finding.
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A question about the Roland (or Clav) and Pianoteq.
Obviously, it's possible to take the audio from the piano, play it through Pianoteq and then take that output and feed it to headphones or external speakers.
Both the Roland and the Clavinova have a jack on the bottom called "Aux In."
If one takes the output from the computer, and plugs it into the "aux in" jack, does that disable the built in sounds? IOW, if I play a harpsichord using Pianoteq, will I hear harpsichord through the Clavinova/Roland speakers, or will I still hear the piano generated by the digital?
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in My next piano??:
- BUMP * for @kluurs
There is an internal switch to turn off the Clav/Roland sound.
Me/rry/Christmas
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@LuFins-Dad ah...thanks. Speakers still powered, but input will be from Pianoteq, right?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in My next piano??:
@LuFins-Dad ah...thanks. Speakers still powered, but input will be from Pianoteq, right?
Yep. Though if you are running headphones, I would bypass and run straight from the computer.
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So yesterday I downloaded a trial of PianoTeq. Mrs. George's laptop got replaced this week so, rather than selling her 2012 MacBook Air, I appropriated it for myself. It's probably worth $100 or so.
So, I took the USB output of my (unplayable) Kawai, and hooked it up to the laptop, took the headphone jack and fed it into the "Line-in" jacks and voila, Hamburg Steinway!
The nice thing is that the speakers on my Kawai are perfectly adequate for what I want. Also, If I plug in my headphones into the Kawai the speakers are disabled, so there's that.
My only criticism is that the volume control on the piano is disabled, and I have to use the volume control on the computer.
But then, my Bohemia doesn't have a volume control either.
It's truly remarkable software. If you want to really, REALLY, get into the weeks of temperament, hammer hardness, etc, you can. But if you just want to enjoy different sounding instruments, it's remarkably easy to use.
The demo version stops working after 20 minutes, and some of the black keys are disabled. Nevertheless, it's a really good taste of what this can do.
